The perfect day

Sometimes a day comes along that you just know you will remember forever. A day that starts off like any other but by the end of it has woven an everlasting tapestry of beautiful memories that take a home in the centre of your heart. Just impossible to repeat moments that you take with you forever. Today’s memories will be ones that on my last day on this beautiful planet that I will search for and hold on to dearly as I leave and take my very last breath. They say your life flashes before you before you pass on to what ever place the universe has destined us to go. I’m hoping these ones go in slow motion so I can saviour them one last time.

Like I said, it started as a normal day, but even though I didnt do or experience anything that anyone else would consider as extra special things happened today that will stay with me forever. Moments that get captured in the lens of time. Most of the day I spent with my girls, which is unusual, my wife went out and left me with my two daughters. Like I say that doesn’t happen very often so we jumped in the car and went out just the three of us. We went to my favourite place which is the lakes and had one of the most loving and enjoyable times together. Love was at the centre of everything.

We did nothing special just walked and played and I shared my love of nature with my two precious young girls. It was just one of those days. The air was warm, the buzz of bees going about their business, birds singing like there was going to be no tomorrow, as if it was their last concert to the world, children playing, dogs barking and hardly a cloud in the sky to be seen, and it made me feel great to be alive. What a wonderful life. There are things cancer can do to me but it can’t compete with my love for life.

So what was so special, well nothing really just moments that happened. A touch, a look a laugh they were all special. Moments happened today that will just stay with me forever. Moments that time will never erase. I tried to capture them on camera but they are already stored in the hard drive that is my mind.

The lakes are full of wildlife, we shared the view of a huge heron taking off and majestically flying off to be somewhere his huge powerful wings gracefully lifting and taking him up into the sky.  Ducks splashing and playing whilst little coots and moorhens darting in and out of the reeds. Each thing that moved sent ripples across the lake. I sat my daughter’s down and told them how I want them to learn to love nature and how nature is always a place you can go to when things maybe are not going so well. Nature won’t bully you, it won’t hold grudges and it will never ever judge you in any way, it just accepts you if you know how to accept it. It will always be there, you don’t have to travel far it’s all around you just have to open your eyes and your heart and it will be with you. If you have a tree, you will find adventures of all kinds going on. Leaves will dance for you, insects will do impossible things for their size and of course trees are the stage for the birds and their incredible shows of magical songs they will always sing.

We came across my favourite spot I simply call the bridge, it’s an old wooden bridge that has a gentle reed lined stream running under it. Some young children with there mum and dad were pointing excitedly down, nature was taking hold of them and giving a show one can’t find on the TV or any screen except through the screen of being there. I asked the dad what was going on, he said there was a small shoal of roach feeding off the bread they were throwing in. My children were watching when something both beautiful and cruel happened in a moment, there was a splash and a large Pike that was hiding in the shadows camouflaged perfectly as to be invisible, waiting for his chance, suddenly grabbed one of the little fishes. This happened two more times. We saw the show from above, I had never seen a single fish in that narrow stream before.

My children sat on the bridge and watched with wonder, it reminded me of a certain little boy years ago who would do the very same thing. They are not me but bits of me are in them, there is no doubt about that. The Pike didn’t appear again, he had given a show of how cruel nature can be but how totally necessary the circle of life is to sustain everything, nothing lives forever. My life may be cut shorter by cancer but my girls have given me a purpose to fight to stay as long as possible. We all will die of something, I’ve got a lot of unfinished business left before I say goodby for good.

We left the bridge full of new memories and went to explore the lake. On the way I met a lady who appeared elderly but after talking to her for a while it was obvious she was anything but. She told us how she likes to swim in lakes, she wears no special wet suit to keep the cold out just her bathing costume. A line she said resonated with me completely, “when I’m in a lake I leave the world and its problems behind” the lake was 14 degrees today she said. My god I won’t get in water unless it’s around 30 degrees I love water but prefer to be on the dry side of it. She told us how tomorrow she is flying up to Scotland to swim in Loch Lomond , wow what an incredible lady. Never judge a book by it’s cover you know always read what’s on the inside before you pass judgement. I don’t know why she chose to stop and chat to us, perhaps she saw something in the three of us

I love dogs, I will get us one when the time is right, I can see the love of dogs in my children too. Almost every dog that passed us came and said hello. One particularly beautiful young Husky just stopped and sat on my feet, the owner couldn’t move him and said he’s never reacted to anyone in that way before. He just sat and wouldn’t leave me just staring up at me as I patted him, he had the most impossibly blue eyes, these were not the eyes of a puppy they were full of intelligence and had, I’m sure seen so much before. Eventually his owner lifted him up and apologised, he had nothing to apologise about he had just provided another beautiful moment in a beautiful day. I’ve been thinking back to the moment, something tells me that the dog new about my illness in some remarkable way, it reminded me of the day when a lady stopped me in the street and gave me a beautiful hug and told me everything will be ok. I talked about that in an earlier blog.

The universe holds so many beautiful surprises today was full of them. Something must guide us to make the decisions that we make. Yesterday seemed to be a day full of good, of kindness love and beauty. We spent about three hours at the lakes and never walked a complete circuit we just stopped at places and I watched the kids play, climb trees and do stuff that would have my wife panicking that something terrible could happen. Just as we were going to leave I had the most beautiful heartfelt chat with my eldest, I won’t talk about what she said that would betray her trust, she’s 14 years old, I’m hoping one day she will read my blog and she will remember that chat and see if I was right in my predictions.

This song keeps playing in my head as I type this blog, I looked up the lyrics and thought I’d share it.

The sun was still shining when we got home, my wife was back and all four of us plus the two cats and two rabbits spent the remaining time on the patio. I sat there with the biggest smile ever, a proud dad looking at his wonderful wonderful family.

Love Woody ❤️